Manuski means humanism in Marathi. A term used by Dr B.R.Ambedkar, a great humanist of India. This blog want stimulating debate without any prejudices of caste, religion and nationalism. It is about humanism and human rights. All freethinkers are welcome to contribute and participate in stimulating debates.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Building political capital on hate propaganda

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

It is a reminder bell that rings every year which has not
changed us to the core. The horrific crimes against humanity perpetrated by the
political goons in the dark night of October 31st till a couple of
days of November 1984 after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was declared officially
‘dead’ and which remain unpunished till date is not just a matter of shame but
absolute failure of our democracy. A truly democratic system would have envisaged
ways and means to tackle such a situation in future but instead people became ‘football’
in the political games of those who have least concern about loss of human
lives and sentiments. Punjab was bleeding when India got partitioned in 1947
and Sikh community felt betrayed as many of their issues remained unsettled
politically. Sikh nationalism has to be merged into pan Indian Nationalism
dictated and dominated by the brahmanical Hindus.

In the din of Pan Indian nationalism, we refused to
understand the Punjab’s hurt psyche and wanted to resolve it through military
solution in the very similar way of what we are doing in Kashmir. We want referendum
on every conflict but not in those regions but in rest of the country. The
people of the state had lost faith in administration and politicians were
reaping rich harvest on ‘action’ against ‘terrorism’ in rest of the country.
So, you take ‘strong’ ‘action’ against ‘terrorist’ and rest assure, you will
get a good crop of votes elsewhere. The farcical first past the post system
that we inherited from the British is actually now the best weapon for our
political class to use against minorities ‘legitimately’.

Political killing cannot help restore peace and resolve a
crisis but we saw how everybody used Indira Gandhi’s killing as a political
weapon for their own interest. The Congress Party used her killing as a killing
of ‘Bharat Mata’ and Rajiv was using all the good words that emerged from ‘Hindutva’
dictionary that time. Maa, Ganga Maa and everything is same which is being used
by Narendra Modi today. Indian sentiments have been very openly and
unambiguously have to be brahmanical Hindu sentiments. The Hindutva elements
inside Congress used it and hence the mandate that Rajiv got in 1984 was
thoroughly communal mandate based on hate propaganda. It does not matter
whether BJP was zero or two member strength in the Parliament as the ideology
preached by the Hindutva won that time. So, to say that Hindutva politics
came just when BJP assumed power is absolutely wrong and does not take into
account the brahmanical games of the Congress Party. India’s mainstream
political parties have seen systematic Hindutvaisation process which was the
agenda of Sangh Parivar. Hinduise the polity they wanted and once that was done
political parties were unable to challenge the process ideologically. It seems
Hindutva has become the main theme and parties want to stick to it and not to
question it.

We did not learn from such a crime against humanity when
state became a party to it and abdicated its responsibility to protect its
citizens irrespective of their caste, religion, region as promised in our
constitution. It is not that Congress only was using Hindutva for its own
purposes. Many of the Sikh groups also
praised the killers and some of them celebrated Indira Gandhi’s killing too. Even
today there are many such groups in UK and Canada which keep celebrating her
death. These unfortunate things come handy for hate monger as a tiny incident
become a powerful weapon of propaganda by the political opponents. It is
according to our suitability who can fetch us vote hence for Modi it is Godhra victims,
for Congress it is Indira’s martyrdom, for Akalis it is the murderers of Indira
Gandhi and that reflects the bankruptcy of our political parties and their
thought process where they assume people to absolute fool and apolitical.

Rumours have always been used to develop hatred towards
minority and the marginalized to ensure a consolidation of so-called ‘majority’
for political purpose. So 1984 and 2002 are may look different to some people
but they are complimentary to each other. The mask of dominance has changed but
it remained quintessentially Hindu hatred towards Sikh in Delhi and Muslims in
Gujarat. The leaders might emerge from different political parties, one ‘so called
secular and the other so called communal but the leadership, ideology of these
parties remain consolidated in the hands of caste Hindus. So the consolidation
of upper caste Hindus towards Hindutva philosophy is not a sudden phenomenon as
it is a political weapon for power and minorities of different variety will
automatically become the victim of this maneuvering.

Many people suggest that in 1984 it was the Congress leaders
who committed the crime against humanity. Yes, Congress found that secular mask
would not help them much in elections and hence it trended dangerously towards
Hindutva and fact is all the events that led to army operation at the Harminder
Saheb need to interrogated and analysed carefully. Right from Kashmir to
Punjab, Indira Gandhi was using the Hindu card and Rajiv did the same after her
death. You need to create a villain for the greater ‘majority’ consolidation
and martial castes become the real tool to ‘act’ on the ground. This is the
real functioning of the status quoists that they use the ‘victims’ to victimize
others. In the cases of riots everywhere urbanized Dalits, OBCs are used even
when the leaders of these groups may hail from the upper caste Hindu background
as the ‘leader’ has to fight elections too.

If you are not convinced then I can put a small question.
May be ‘experts’ can analyse the trend of

Trilokpuri incident last week and
compare it with what happened on the nights of October 31st and
first week of November 1984. The victims in 1984 were Sikhs and this time
Muslims but the perpetrators were political goons of Congress that time and this
time of the Hindutva party and I can bet the ‘actors’ may be the same who are ‘professionals’
who have become ‘nationalists’ ensures every different thought and look should
be ‘treated’ properly. It is therefore essential to see India’s political
trends not in terms of Congress or BJP but in terms of majoritarianism at the
cost of minorities. If this trend is not arrested we will see more blood bath.
India’s electoral system has actually converted minorities into a sandwich
between different authoritarian brahmanical parties and unless our electoral
system is not changed completely we will see more communal slaughter to ‘anoint’
so messiahs over us.

The failure of the victim getting justice has given
bigger propaganda material to those whose ideology was responsible for the
crisis that we face in India today. Just yesterday the government of India
decided to ‘increase’ amount of compensation to five lakh rupees to the people
killed in ‘communal violence’. Shamelessly, the entire issue has been communalized
with a clear agenda of going to polls in Punjab exclusively in the coming
years. One must ask as whether people
who have been slaughtered in Gujarat in 2002 and who happened to be Muslims
will also get any compensation on account of this? Years after year, we see
killings of Dalits by the caste Hindus and yet not a single case has been taken
to conclusion. India must ask a question to itself why in the past 60 years,
none of those responsible for communal carnage have been given any sentences by
the courts. In fact, all those who are responsible for such disturbances
and hatred are reaping rich harvest politically. Our judiciary has to introspect
as why there is such antipathy on part of our state and the system which claim
to be ‘one of the best’. Riots after
riots and there is no lessons. Tragedies are occurring on larger scales and yet
state remains mute and in the riots cases if we follow them diligently the ‘professionals’
are caught but the real ‘actors’ behind the crime are roaming free and have
political protection and power at their hand. When will we see the day when
politicians who reaping this ‘rich harvest of hatred’ get sentences by our
courts. Unless that is done, we will continue to see the crop of hatred which
will empower a few of our politicians but definitely weaken the whole idea of
India.

In 1984, we had still good people around us in the media who
raised the issue and have been fighting for the rights of the people who were
slaughtered. We cannot imagine that now as the time has changed and media has
been converted into the propaganda tool of the ruling party. That over 10000
people were killed all over the country and in the most brutal manner and yet
we as a nation could not provide a healing touch to them is a shame. It is
double shame when people who themselves butcher another minority and
discriminate among different minorities create a deliberate and mischievous
misunderstanding of an entire thing which is nothing but majoritarianism and
its brutal repercussion on minorities. It is the power of these dominant and
powerful majoritarian political classes which has resulted in the massacres of
people after independence. They will blame each other but the fact is that they
perpetuated it. Unambiguously, it is the idea of majority dominance in
democracy where minorities have to just succumb and follow the diktats. We are
witnessing it at every level.

India does not need to choose between an Iron man and Iron
woman. The Iron man was a Congressman and a Gandhian though with a feudal mind
and the iron woman too displayed similar anti-democratic tendencies many time.
Ofcourse, if commitment to socialism and India’s marginalized and minorities
are concern, iron woman as well as her father would be considered far above the
‘iron man’ of India but at the core of their heart both the Iron woman and Iron
Man were ‘dictatorial’ in nature. We need to go beyond the rhetoric of
individuals and come back to work according to the spirit of our constitution
and international laws. Remembering leaders is good but using them for
political purposes must stop now. We do not need messiah as they have done
enough damage to us making us absolutely ‘devotees’ without ever thinking and
respecting rights of others. There is no doubt that Congress leadership had
gone overboard in promoting their Nehru Gandhi family but things were never as
awkward and explicit as they are looking today. With pettiness being visible at the highest
level, Indian continue to show how immature as a democracy they are and how we
live in bitterness giving full freedom to those who continue to enjoy great
harvest of hatred. Whoever be at the helm of affairs in Delhi or state, it
is the people who will have to pay price. A country is known from the society
it has and event managements will not ensure future of its children, women and
men. The attitude to look down upon the minorities in suspicion and giving
legitimacy to all forms of accusations and violence against them must stop at
all level.

The electoral system which benefitted Congress is now
helping the BJP but the victims remain the minorities. The propaganda is mostly
based on individual incidents where persons from minority or marginalized communities
are involved. Their ‘action’ results in negative portrayal of the entire
community and ‘need’ strong ‘reaction’. We have seen such ‘reactions’. Majority
symbols too are being supplied for children, young and adults in large quantity
these days.

They mean nothing but everything and have become license to
intimidate others who do not look like ‘us’. Every morning we are hearing these
heavily loaded slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ not out of
our own self but to provoke ‘others’ who may not be having the same idea about
this concept. If patriotism and nationalism can be certified just on the basis
of a few empty slogans, India would not have had any problem but it is much
bigger than this. Gandhi was killed and his killings have been justified so
was the killings of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv. Godhra was justified and so was
the massacre of Delhi in 1984 and Gujarat in 2002. Hundreds of other riots and
pogroms have happened in India and our notoriety is in justifying them.

Our
political system has not yet evolved and may be the political parties do not
want that to evolve fully to convert us into a complete democracy where each
one of us express our opinion without any fear and each of the communities
living in India has enough participation in our power structure. We will not
have people crying for justice then when each one of us will feel the pain of
them. Why should the victims of pogroms of 1984 and 2002 be referred to with
particular political slants? They were Indians and therefore India needs to
respond to this that both the massacres at 1984 and 2002 are blot to its face
and reflect draconian majority tendencies afraid of minority assertion or
dissent.

Democracies mature from the accidents of history so that such things
do not happen again by providing level playing fields and ensuring through
speedy justice without any political manipulations. Will our political leaders
rise above narrow and petty political interests and allow justice to be done to
those who have been used as fodder to reach power structure. People must not
allow themselves to be used in such a way as such games are not over and some
other day we will see other games where people are killed and justification being
provided by those in power.

Followers

About Me

Learning through working. Working at the grassroots made me realise the big difference between those who claim to represent communities as well as the communities themselves. Common man is crushed between the ambitions of various individuals to lead and dominate. The dominant and high numbered communities will always dominate our discourse and the most marginalised are losing in this entire discourse. That is the reason why Mushahar remain at the marginalised and the issue of manual scavenging still not on our top agenda and to eliminate that the community has to decide its own organisations..

I am devoted to freedom of ideas and expression. I personally feel that we in the subcontinent want to dominate and control our discourse and each one of is a ultra nationalist in terms of their caste and community. Nationalism is not just national and political but it is equally in term of religion and caste. I feel each kind of nationalism is a dominant discourse which deny the dissenter a right to speak.

At the end, we all want to listen the truth suitable to us.. we have become expertised in the art of speaking truth of convenience. As long as that remain hall mark of our society and we speak to already converts, this society will remain stagnant, it will always try to control our ideas and choices. We need to oppose any such perception, ideas that want to control our mind and victimise us.

To understand India further, I feel, it is good to do foot walk, ( Padyatras) to various parts of the country. I have so far done it thrice covering nearly 1500-2000 kilometers. It is always interesting to see how people are coping their issues and what is the reason of their exploitation.